1251 Gilford St. (corner Brébeuf), 514-658-1839. Open: Tuesday to Saturday, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. No wheelchair access. Reservations are essential. Major cards. Not especially vegetarian friendly. Parking easy on surrounding streets. Price range: $$-$$$.
Published on Apr 09, 2010
A service station at Le Quartier Général
Am I ever excited about this week’s restaurant, and if there’s one thing this column needs lately, it’s something to get excited about. After a barrage of lackluster restaurants to review in 2010, I’m happy – no, make that thrilled – to report on a solid newcomer. And on top of that, it’s a bring-your-own-wine establishment. Take note, restaurant-goers, this column’s worth saving.
330 Mount Royal Ave. E. (corner Drolet St.); Phone: 514-286-0123; www.aucinquiemepeche.com; wheelchair access; reservations are essential, major cards; vegetarian friendly; price range: $$$.
Seal appetizer: seal salami salad, smoked seal and seal croquette
Summer is a season for open-plan restaurants, terrasses and places where you can sit bare-legged, savouring a fish tartare next to a floor-to-ceiling window while soaking up warm breezes. And yet it's funny how now, with fall lurking in the shadows, I'm already eager to get back into the black turtleneck bistro mode complete with heady Côtes-du-Rhône wines and a steaming plate of cassoulet. I'm a sucker for neighbourhood bistros, with their blackboards, charismatic waiters and checkered floors. I also like the intimacy of such small restaurants, where one group of people having a few laughs is enough to create ambience for the entire room. Add a few Piaf tunes to the mix and you have the makings for one memorable restaurant outing.
3610 Wellington St.(near LaSalle Blvd.); 514-768-4224; www.simplechic.ca; major cards; no wheelchair access; vegetarian-friendly; parking easy on the street; price range: $$$.
Tables overlooking Wellington St.
Restaurant reviews usually focus on new restaurants, 'cause we all want to know if the new bistro getting the buzz really is all that. Once said establishment has been reviewed, the fact that it draws crowds is testimony to its success. Yet, restaurants are a work in progress. Or, worst-case scenario, a work that ceases to progress. All too often, I have endorsed restaurants that eventually fail to hold up their side of the bargain. People think that time can only make a restaurant better. But often it's the opposite: the restaurant goes from sharp to unfocused. Case in point: Simpléchic.
2347 de l'Eglise St., Val-David; 819-322-3196; www.restaurantleszebres.com; major cards; wheelchair access; parking lot on site; vegetarian friendly; price range: $$-$$$.
Entranceway at Les Zèbres
I spent the past month holed up in a chalet in the Laurentians watching the rain come down. As grim as that may sound, it wasn't. Turns out loon-watching is exceedingly entertaining, jam-making never gets old, and I can now pinpoint the exact two-millimeter hole in my leaky roof. Anyway, the best thing about the Laurentians is that if you're willing to drive a bit, there are endless discoveries to be made, one of the best being the town of Val-David.
1476 Crescent St. (corner de Maisonneuve Blvd.); 514-284-6555; www.lenewtown.com; open: Mon.-Sat. 5:30 p.m.- 10:30 p.m.; no wheelchair access; major cards; vegetarian friendly; parking difficult but there are several lots in the area; price range: $$$.
Published on Jul 16, 2009
Photo Marie-France Coallier, The Gazette
Chefs and Patrice Demers and Marc-André Jetté
My husband is a chef, a pastry chef to be exact. And there’s no denying the restaurant critic/chef coupling can get awfully tense at times. Unwilling to acknowledge the fact that a positive review can help a restaurant, he sees me as the enemy waiting to destroy. Of course, on the rare occasion he dines out with me, he criticizes everything, but that’s just between us, right? What he objects to is the whole rundown in print. Quel drame!
Anyway, all this to say when I mentioned I was headed to Newtown last week, the boy’s eyebrows shot sky high. “What!” he said. “The chefs only just arrived! You should wait at least three months. Six would be better.”
355 St. Jacques St. W. (in the St. James Hotel ); 514-841-5000; www.xolerestaurant.com; All major cards; no wheelchair access; free valet parking; vegetarian-friendly; price range: $$$-$$$$.
Published on Mar 31, 2009
Photo John Kenney/THE GAZETTE
XO's magnificent dining room
You know what’s on the “out” list these days? Ostentation. This hit home big time as I sat in XO’s plush dining room, a room known as “Banker’s Hall.” Perched on a Louis the somethingth chair while fingering the Christofle silverware, guilt swept over me. Suddenly I was not restaurant reviewer wearing a decade-old cardigan, but a Merrill Lynch CEO rethinking the office decor or an AIG exec planning where to stash the bonus
3779 Wellington St.(Near Hickson Ave.); 514-544-3779; Open: Lunch Wednesday to Friday, noon to 2:30 p.m.; dinner Wednesday to Saturday, 6 to 9 p.m.; no wheelchair access; reservations are essential; major cards; price range: $$-$$$
Published on Feb 02, 2009
Butternut squash soup at Mas Cuisine
Looks like Michel Ross is still wearing the crown as Montreal's king of cost-cutting chefs. It's a title he earned when he and partner Zach Suhl ran Brunoise, the little Plateau restaurant that offered gourmet food for a song. Ross and Suhl drew in the crowds by undercutting the competition with low prices, which gradually rose as they realized that despite all their hard work, profits were small.
8 Sherbrooke St. W. (in the Opus Hotel, near St. Laurent Blvd.); 514-657-5656; www.kokomontreal.com; wheelchair access; parking: $10 valet parking or on surrounding streets; price range: Starters $$$.
Published on Jan 28, 2009
Photo John Kenney, The Gazette
Asian beef tartare and dumplings
I have a love-hate relationship with trendy restaurants. Let's start with the love. I love the over-the-top decor, the ambitious menus, the groovy background tunes, the great-looking wait staff, the designer cocktails and the young-and-comely clientele. Most of all, I love the risk-taking element to these restaurants. It's all or nothing, baby, and when it works, a trendy restaurant can draw the crowds and reap the benefits.
Which brings me to what I hate.
311 St. Paul St. E. (near St. Claude St.); 514-878-2232; www.chezlepicier.com. no wheelchair access; vegetarian friendly; reservations essential. Price range: Starters $$$-$$$$.
Published on Dec 11, 2008
Photo The Gazette
Chef Laurent Godbout
With a serious interest in food, a love of cooking and first-hand experience working in front of or behind the swinging kitchen doors of a restaurant, I think a reviewer is qualified to evaluate whether a fine-dining experience is one that should be praised or criticized.
Praise is lauded on the people who do things right: a bistro with fabulous steak/frites, an innovative restaurant that offers truly novel menu items, an authentic Italian restaurant that sees beyond red-sauce pastas and veal scallopini. That's the easy part.
479 St. Alexis St. (near Notre Dame St.); 514-303-0479; www.restaurantlorignal.com; major cards; no wheelchair access; price range: Starters: $$-$$$.
Published on Sep 30, 2008
cool business card!
If Sarah Palin is ever stranded on the presidential campaign trail between Alaska and Washington, do I have the restaurant for her. It's right here in Montreal, it's called L'Orignal, which translates not to "original" but to "moose." Despite what you may be thinking, Palin's favourite moose burgers are not on the menu. Instead she can sink those pearly whites into lamb burgers, braised wild boar, and a bison rib steak only slightly smaller than Dick Cheney's ego.
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